Dear API users,

Next week we will update the GBIF.org occurrence index, API and website to align with updates to the Darwin Core standard released last year.

Two changes deserve attention, as they may need minor changes to existing code, scripts, queries etc:

1) A new basis of record, Material Citation, replaces the obsolete Literature basis of record.  Literature was removed from Darwin Core some years ago, but GBIF's index retained the term since existing datasets were using it.  These records will now appear as Material Citations, which has a broader definition: https://dwc.tdwg.org/list/#dwc_MaterialCitation

Additionally, the "Unknown" basis of record will no longer be used, instead records will be shown with an "Occurrence" basis of record.

2) The existing term Establishment Means now has an official vocabulary in Darwin Core.  The old GBIF enumeration will no longer be used, and values of this term will instead be matched to an element of the new vocabulary.

See https://dwc.tdwg.org/list/#dwc_establishmentMeans for the term definition and https://dwc.tdwg.org/em/ for the new vocabulary. GBIF's vocabulary used for interpretation (containing synonyms etc) is here: https://registry.gbif.org/vocabulary/EstablishmentMeans

3) The terms Recorded By ID, Identified By ID and Subgenus are now part of Darwin Core, and move from a GBIF namespace to the TDWG namespace.  (The change is visible in meta.xml files of Darwin Core Archive downloads, and on verbatim occurrence records.)

Other changes include:

4) The new terms Degree of Establishment and Pathway are also supported, in the same way as Establishment Means.

https://dwc.tdwg.org/list/#dwc_degreeOfEstablishment / https://dwc.tdwg.org/doe/ / https://registry.gbif.org/vocabulary/DegreeOfEstablishment

https://dwc.tdwg.org/list/#dwc_pathway / https://dwc.tdwg.org/pw/ / https://registry.gbif.org/vocabulary/Pathway

5) New/additional terms including Vertical Datum, Verbatim Identification, Subfamily, Infrageneric Epithet and Cultivar Epithet will be shown on occurrences.  Note these are not yet interpreted — interpreting the taxonomic terms will require support from the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and Checklistbank.

The IPT's schemas will also be updated to allow publication of datasets using these changed or updated terms.  We will write to the IPT mailing list with further details on this.

Best regards,

Matt Blissett